In industry the open standard EtherCAT* is well established as a real-time fieldbus for largely distributed and synchronised systems. Open source solutions for the bus master have been first introduced in scientific installations by Diamond Light Source** and PSI using EtherCAT hardware for digital and analog I/Os. The European Spallation Source (ESS) decided to establish open source EtherCAT systems for mid-performance data acquisition and motion control on accelerator applications. In this contribution we present the motion control software package ECMC developed at the ESS using the open source Etherlab*** master to control the EtherCAT bus. The motion control interfaces with a model 3 driver to the EPICS motor record supporting it's functionalities like positioning, jogging, homing and soft/hard limits. Advanced functionalities supported by ECMC are full servo-loop feedback, a scripting language for custom synchronisation of different axes, virtual axes, externally triggered position capture and interlocking. On the example of prototyping a 2-axis wire scanner we show a fully EPICS integrated application of ECMC on different EtherCAT and CPU hardware platforms.* http://www.ethercat.org ** R. Mercado, I. J. Gillingham, J. H. Rowland, K. Wilkinson "Integrating EtherCAT based IO into EPICS at Diamond." ICALEPCS 2011, Grenoble 2011 *** http://www.etherlab.org

In a complex machine such as a particle accelerator there are thousands of analogue signals that need monitoring and even more signals that could be used for debugging or as a tool for detecting symptoms of potentially avoidable problems. Usually it is not feasible to acquire and monitor all of these signals not only because of the cost but also because of cabling and space required. The RF system in the Large Hadron Collider is protected by multiple hardware interlocks that ensure safe operation of klystrons, superconducting cavities and all the other equipment. In parallel, a diagnostic system has been deployed to monitor the health of the klystrons. Due to the limited amount of space and the moderate number of signals to be monitored, a standard approach with a full VME or Compact PCI crate has not been selected. Instead, small embedded industrial computers with USB oscilloscopes chosen for the specific application have been installed. This cost effective, rapidly deployable solution will be presented, including existing and possible future installations as well as the software used to collect the data and integrate it with existing CERN infrastructure.

PandABox is a development project resulting from a collaboration between Synchrotron SOLEIL and Diamond Light Source started in October 2015. The initial objective driving the project was to provide multi-channel encoder processing for synchronizing data acquisitions with motion systems in experimental continuous scans. The resulting system is a multi-purpose platform well adapted for multi-technique scanning and feedback applications. This flexible and modular platform embeds an industrial electronics board with a powerful Xilinx Zynq 7030 SoC (Avnet PicoZed), FMC slot, SFP module, TTL and LDVS I/Os and removable encoder peripheral modules. In the same manner, the firmware and software framework has been developed in a modular way to be easily configurable and adaptable. The whole system is open and extensible from the hardware level up to integration with control systems like TANGO or EPICS. This paper details the hardware capabilities, platform performance, framework adaptability, and the project status at both sites.szhang@synchrotron-soleil.fr

Funding:This work was in part supported by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union (iNEXT grant, project No. 653706)Originally conceived at ESRF and first deployed in 2005 MXCuBE, Macromolecular Xtallography Customized Beamline Environment, has with its successor MXCuBE2, become a successful international collaboration. The aim of the collaboration is to develop a beamline control application for macromolecular crystallography (MX) that are independent of underlying instrument control software and thus deployable at the MX beamlines of any synchrotron source. The continued evolution of the functionality offered at MX beamlines is to a large extent facilitated by active software development. New demands and advances in technology have led to the development of a new version of MXCuBE, MXCuBE3, The design of which was inspired by the results of a technical pre-study and user survey. MXCuBE3 takes advantage of the recent development in web technologies such as React and Redux to create an intuitive and user friendly application. The access to the application from any web browser further simplifies the operation and natively facilitates the execution of remote experiments.

Funding:This work is supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research (MIUR) with funds specifically assigned to the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF)The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) project is an international initiative to build a next generation ground-based observatory for very high energy gamma-rays. Three classes of telescopes with different mirror size will be located in the northern and southern hemispheres. The ASTRI mini-array of CTA preproduction is one of the small sized telescopes mini-arrays proposed to be installed at the CTA southern site. The ASTRI mini-array will consist of nine units based on the end-to-end ASTRI SST-2M prototype already installed on Mt. Etna (Italy). The mini-array software system (MASS) supports the end to end ASTRI SST-2M prototype and miniarray operations. The ASTRI software integration team defined the procedures to perform effectively the integration test and release activities. The developer has to properly use the repository tree and branches according to the development status. We require that the software includes also specific sections for automated tests and that the software is well tested (in simulated and real system) before any release. Here we present the method adopted to release the first MASS version to support the ASTRI SST-2M prototype test and operation activities.* conforti@iasfbo.inaf.it

The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) is currently under construction in Hawaii. The telescope control system comprises a significant number of subsystems to coordinate the operation of the telescope and its instruments. Integrating delivered subsystems into the control framework and managing existing subsystem versions requires careful management, including processes that provide confidence in the current operational state of the whole control system. Continuous software Quality Assurance provides test metrics on these systems using a Testing Automation Framework (TAF), which provides system and assembly test capabilities to ensure that software and control requirements are met. This paper discusses the requirements for a Quality Assurance program and the implementation of the TAF to execute it.

At Solaris (National Synchrotron Radiation Center , Kraków ) we have deployed test VDI software to virtualize physical desktops in the control room to ensure stability, more efficient support, system updates, and restores. The test was aimed to accelerate the installation of new work places for the single users. Horizon software gives us an opportunity to create roles and access permission . VDI software has contributed to efficient management and lower maintenance costs of virtual machines than physical hosts. We are still testing VMware Horizon 7 at Solaris.

The ATLAS experiment has recently commissioned a new hardware component of its first-level trigger: the topological processor (L1Topo). This innovative system, using state-of-the-art FPGA processors, selects events by applying kinematic and topological requirements on candidate objects (energy clusters, jets, and muons) measured by calorimeters and muon sub-detectors. Since the first-level trigger is a synchronous pipelined system, such requirements are applied within a latency of 200ns. We will present the first results from data recorded using the L1Topo trigger; these demonstrate a significantly improved background event rejection, thus allowing for a rate reduction without efficiency loss. This improvement has been shown for several physics processes leading to low-pT leptons, including H->tau tau and J/Psi->mu mu. In addition, we will discuss the use of an accurate L1Topo simulation as a powerful tool to validate and optimize the performance of this new trigger system. To reach the required accuracy, the simulation must take into account the limited precision that can be achieved with kinematic calculations implemented in firmware.

At FAIR the commissioning of the re-assembled CRYRING accelerator, formerly hosted by Manne Siegbahn Laboratory Stockholm, is currently in progress. This compact low energy heavy ion synchrotron and experimental storage ring will be the main instrument for an extensive research programme [1] as well as a testing platform for the future beam instrumentation and control system concepts decided on for FAIR. Besides many other measurement systems CRYRING is equipped with 18 beam position monitors (BPM), for which a new data acquisition system (DAQ) was developed. Based on the upcoming MicroTCA form factor in combination with FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) technology the DAQ system was designed to be state-of-the-art, reliable, modular and of high performance. Testing 'Open Hardware', here the ADC FMCs and FMC carrier boards, was another intention of that concept. The DAQ layout and obstacles that had to be overcome as well as first measurements will be presented.

After 20 years successful operation of SPring-8, the third generation synchrotron radiation facility, maintaining old analogue modules of LLRF system tend to be difficult. Meanwhile a digital technology like FPGA, fast ADC/DAC become popular. We decided to replace the old analog LLRF system with modern MTCA.4 based one. Prior to replacing the system, we planed to examine the performance of the new system at an RF test stand. An AMC digitizer and a RTM vector modulator were introduced. A feedback control function was reproduced in the FPGA of the digitizer. We also adopted EtherCAT for relatively slow control, such as a motor control for cavity tuner and monitoring of a vacuum pressure. In addition to developing the new hardware of MTCA.4, we were developing a new data acquisition system and a new MQTT based messaging system for an integrated control framework of SPring-8 and SACLA, the X-ray free electron laser facility. To prove feasibility of new control system, it was implemented at the RF test stand. As the result of high power RF operation, we achieved demanding stability of RF in the cavity. We also confirmed that new software framework was enough to control LLRF system.

We have developed the TiCkS board based on the White Rabbit (WR) SPEC node, to provide ns-precision time-stamps (TSs) of input signals (e.g., triggers from a connected device) and transmission of these TSs to a central collection point. TiCkS was developed within the specifications of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) as one of the candidate TS nodes, with a small form-factor allowing its use in any CTA camera. The essential part of this development concerns the firmware in its Spartan-6 FPGA, with the addition of: 1) a 1ns-precision TDC for the TSs; 2) a UDP stack to transmit TSs and auxiliary information over the WR fibre, and to receive configuration & slow control commands over the same fibre. It also provides a 1-PPS and other clock signals to the connected device, from which it can receive auxiliary event-type information over an SPI link. A version of TiCkS with an FMC connector will be made available in the WR OpenHardware repository, so allowing the use of a mezzanine card with varied formats of input/output connectors, providing a cheap, flexible, and reliable solution for ns-precision time-stamping of trigger signals up to 200 kHz, for use in other experiments.

High intensity hadron colliders and fixed target experiments at CERN require an increasing amount of robotic tele-manipulation interventions to prevent and reduce excessive exposure of maintenance personnel to the radioactive environment. Tele-manipulation tasks are often required on dated radioactive devices which were not conceived to be maintained and handled using standard one arm robotic solutions. Robotic platforms with a level of dexterity that often requires using two robotic arms with a minimum of six degrees of freedom are instead needed for these purposes. In this paper, the control of a novel robust robotic platform able to host and to carry safely a dual-arms robotic system is presented. The arms and the vehicle controls are fully integrated in order to guarantee simplicity to the operators during the realization of the robotic tasks. A novel high-level control architecture for the new robot is shown, as well as a novel low-level safety layer for anti-collision and recovery scenarios. Preliminary results of the system commissioning are presented using CERN accelerator facilities as a use case.

Malcolm is a middlelayer framework that implements high level configure/run behaviour of control system components like those used in continuous scans. It was created as part of the Mapping project at Diamond Light Source to improve the performance of continuous scanning and make it easier to share code between beamlines. It takes the form of a Python framework which wraps up groups of EPICS PVs into modular "Blocks". A hierarchy of these can be created, with the Blocks at the top of the tree providing a higher level scanning interface to GDA, Diamond's Generic Data Acquisition software. The framework can be used as a library in continuous scanning scripts, or can act as a server via pluggable communications modules. It currently has server and client support for both pvData over pvAccess, and JSON over websockets. When running as a webserver this allows a web GUI to be used to visualize the connections between these blocks (like the wiring of EPICS areaDetector plugins). This paper details the architecture and design of framework, and gives some examples of its use at Diamond.

In developing the control system for the FAIR accelerator complex we encountered strict latency and throughput contraints on the timely supply of data to devices controlling ramped magnets. In addition, the timing hardware that interfaces to the White Rabbit timing network may be shared by multiple processes on a single front-end computer. This paper describes the interprocess communication and resource-sharing system, and the consequences of using the D-Bus message bus. Then our experience of improving latency and throughput performance to meet the realtime requirements of the control system is discussed. Work is also presented on prioritisation techniques to allow time-critical services to share the bus with other components.

The linear induction accelerator LIA-20 for radiography is a pulsed machine designed to provide three consecutive electron bunches. Since every pulse is a distinctive experiment, it is of high importance to provide coherence of the facility state and the experimental data. This paper presents overall software architecture. Challenges and particular approaches to designing of a pulsed machine control system using Tango are discussed.

Hardware access often brings implementation details into a control application, which are subsequently published to the control system. Experience at DESY has shown that it is beneficial for the software quality to use a high level of abstraction from the beginning of a project. Some hardware registers for instance can immediately be treated as process variables if an appropriate library is taking care of most of the error handling. Other parts of the hardware need an additional layer to match the abstraction level of the application. Like this development cycles can be shortened and the code is easier to read and maintain because the logic focuses on what is done, not how it is done. We present the abstraction concept we are using, which is not only unifying the access to hardware but also how process variables are published via the control system middleware.

The acquisition of X-ray diffraction data from macromolecular crystals is a major activity at many synchrotrons and requires user interfaces that provide robust and easy-to-use control of the experimental setup. Building on the modular design of the MxCuBE beamline user interface, we have implemented a finite state machine model that allows to describe and monitor the interaction of the user with the beamline in a typical experiment. Using a finite state machine, the path of user interaction can be rationalized and error conditions and recovery procedures can be systematically dealt with.Gabadinho, J. et al. (2010). MxCuBE: a synchrotron beamline control environment customized for macromolecular crystallography experiments. J. Synchrotron Rad. 17, 700-707

SSC-Linac is a linear accelerator injector of SSC in HIRFL. The vacuum control system is based on EPICS which is a real-time distributed control software. The Labview real-time VIs and EPICS VIs were used to design Input/Output Controller(IOC).The different kinds of CRIO modules were adopt in device layer, which can monitor the serial port data from vacuum gauges and contol vacuum valves. The whole control system can acquire vacuum data, control vacuum devices remotely, make the pressure value of the vacuum gauge and vacuum valve interlocked. It also keeps the equipment work stable and the beam has a high quality.

When the European Muon beamlines at the ISIS pulsed neutron and muon source [1] upgraded their front end magnets, it was desired that these new magnets should be controllable remotely. This work was undertaken by the team responsible for instrument control, who are in the process of a phased upgrade of instrument control software from a locally developed system (SECI) to an EPICS [2] based one (IBEX [3,4]). To increase the complexity of the task, parts of the front end needed to be controlled only by an individual instrument beamline, whilst some values needed to be tuned to the best compromise available for all three beamlines. Furthermore, the muon instruments were not ready for an upgrade to a full IBEX system at that time. By combining SECI, IBEX and the Mantid [5] data reduction package the required control and tuning has been achieved. This paper will give details of the challenges, the topology of the solution, how the current mixed system is performing, and what will be changed when the muon instruments are converted to IBEX.

CERN MEDICIS is a research facility that will make radioisotopes for medical applications using the primary proton beam at ISOLDE. It will start operating later in 2017. The high level application for the new beam line is responsible for the control of various equipment, such as power supplies, Faraday cups and scanners, as well as the monitoring of environmental parameters such as the vacuum level. It is characterized by a single user friendly interface to facilitate the operators tasks. In this paper we provide arguments for the chosen solution and give the latest update on the status of the project.

Versatile Macromolecular in-situ (VMXi) is the first beamline at Diamond Light Source (DLS) to be entirely automated with no direct user interaction to set up and control experiments. This marks a radical departure from other beamlines at the facility and it has presented a significant design challenge to General Data Acquisition (GDA), the in-house software that manages beamline data collection. GDA has become a reactive controller for continual, uninterrupted processing of all user experiments. A major achievement has been to demonstrate that it is possible to successfully deliver a suitable architectural implementation for automation developed within a standard integrate development environment (IDE). There is no need for specialised software or a domain specific language for automation. The objective is to: review VMXi project with the emphasis on hardware configuration and experiment processing; describe the software and control architecture for automation; and provide a general set of guidelines for developing software for automation at a scientific facility.

BLISS is the new ESRF control system for running experiments, with full deployment aimed for the end of the EBS upgrade program in 2020. BLISS provides a global approach to run synchrotron experiments, thanks to hardware integration, Python sequences and an advanced scanning engine. As a Python package, BLISS can be easily embedded into any Python application and data management features enable online data analysis. In addition, BLISS ships with tools to enhance scientists user experience and can easily be integrated into TANGO based environments, with generic TANGO servers on top of BLISS controllers. BLISS configuration facility can be used as an alternative TANGO database. Delineating all aspects of the BLISS project from beamline device configuration up to the integrated user interface, this talk will present the technical choices that drove BLISS design and will describe the BLISS software architecture and technology stack in depth.

A significant part of the experiments run at Alba Synchrotron* involve scans. The continuous scans were developed first ad hoc and latter the controls group dedicated important efforts to standardize them across the Alba instruments, enhancing the overall performance and allowing the users to better exploit the beamtime**. Sardana***, the experiment control software used at Alba, among other features, aims to provide a generic way of programming and executing continuous scans. This development just achieved a major milestone - an official version with a stable API. Recently the Alba instruments were successfully upgraded to profit from this release. In this paper we describe the evolution of these setups as well as the new continuous scan applications run at Alba. On the one hand, the most relevant hardware solutions are presented and assessed. On the other hand the Sardana software is evaluated in terms of its utility in building the continuous scans setups. Finally we discuss the future improvements plan designed to satisfy the ever-increasing requirements of the scientists.* http://www.albasynchrotron.es ** Z. Reszela et al. 'Implementation of Continuous Scans Used in Beamline Experiments at Alba Synchrotron', ICALEPCS2013 *** http://www.sardana-controls.org

Funding:Wassim Mansour acknowledges support from the EUCALL project which has received funding from the European Union's H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654220.The ESRF initiated few years ago the development of a novel platform for optimised transfer of 2D detector data based on zero-copy Remote Direct Memory Access techniques. The purpose of this new scheme, under the name of RASHPA, is to efficiently dispatch with no CPU intervention multiple parallel multi-GByte/s data streams produced by modular detectors directly from the detector head to computer clusters for data storage, visualisation and distributed data treatment. The RASHPA platform is designed to be implementable using any data link and transfer protocol that supports RDMA write operations and that can trigger asynchronous events. This paper presents the ongoing work for the first implementation of RASHPA in a real system using the hardware platform of the Medipix3 based SMARTPIX hybrid pixel detector developed at ESRF and relying on switched PCIe over cable network for data transfer. It details the implementation of the RASPHA controller at the detector side and provides input on the software for the management of the overall data acquisition system at the receiver side. The implementation and use of a PCIe switch built with components off-the-shelf is also discussed.

ELI-ALPS (Extreme Light Infrastructure - Attosecond Light Pulse Source) is a new Research Infrastructure under implementation in Hungary. The infrastructure will consist of various systems (laser sources, beam transport, secondary sources, end stations) built on top of common subsystems (HVAC, cooling water, vibration monitoring, vacuum system, etc.), yielding a heterogeneous environment. To support the full control software development lifecycle for this complex infrastructure a flexible hierarchical configuration model has been defined, and a supporting toolset has been developed for its management. The configuration model is comprehensive as it covers all relevant aspects of the entire controlled system, the control software components and all the necessary connections between them. Furthermore, it supports the generation of virtual environments that approximate the hardware environment for software testing purposes. The toolset covers configuration functions such as storage, version control, GUI editing and queries. The model and tools presented in our paper are not specific to ELI-ALPS or to the ELI community, they may be useful for other research institutions as well.

Funding:This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, under contract number DE-AC05-00OR22725.Historically, attendance at the International Conference on Accelerator and Large Experimental Physics Control Systems has not been particularly diverse in terms of gender or race. In fact, the lack of diversity amongst the attendees was noted during the closing session of the 2015 conference by an invited speaker from outside the accelerator community. Informal discussion and observations support the assertion that our conference attendance reflects the diversity of the broader accelerator controls workforce. Facing very low participation of women in our field and even lower minority representation, it is important to examine this issue as studies point to the importance of diverse work groups to spark innovation and creativity as catalysts to solving difficult problems. This paper will discuss diversity and inclusion in the disciplines that comprise the accelerator controls workforce, including background, barriers and strategies for improvement.

Funding:U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is the world's largest and most energetic laser experimental facility with 192 beams capable of delivering 1.8 megajoules and 500-terawatts of ultraviolet light to a target. Officially commissioned as an operational facility on March 21, 2009, NIF is expected to conduct research experiments thru 2039. The 30-year lifespan of the control system presents several challenges in meeting reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) expectations. As NIF continues to expand on its experimental capabilities, the control system's software base of 3.5 million lines of code grows with most of the legacy software still in operational use. Supporting this software is further complicated by technology life cycles and turnover of senior experienced staff. This talk will present lessons learned and new initiatives related to technology refreshes, risk mitigation, and changes to our software development and test methodology to ensure high control system availability for supporting experiments throughout NIF's lifetime.LLNL-ABS-727374

Funding:Work supported by Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC under Contract No. DE-SC0012704 with the U.S. Department of Energy.The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) complex of accelerators at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) operates using a large distributed controls system, consisting of approximately 1.5 million control points, over 430 VME based control modules, and thousands of server processes. We have developed a new testing platform that can be used to improve code reliability and help streamline the code development process by adding more automated testing. The testing platform simulates the control system using the actual controls system code base but by redirecting the I/O to simulated interfaces. In this report, we will describe the design of the system and the current status of its development.

Funding:Extreme Light Infrastructure, CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0061The ELI Beamlines facility is a Petawatt laser facility in the final construction and commissioning phase in Prague, Czech Republic. The central control system connects and controls more than 40 complex subsystems (lasers, beam transport, beamlines, experiments, facility systems, safety systems) with hundreds of cameras. For this, a comprehensive set of standard solutions is provided: Hardware interface standards guarantee ad-hoc software integration, for commonly used models, standardised auxiliary hardware (triggering: optical/TTL, power supplies) is available. Information on key parameters (vacuum compatibility, noise levels) is collected. 95% of cameras are interfaced using an vendor-independent C+±SDK. Exceptions are only made for special detectors (for example: wavefront sensors, x-ray cameras). By using a strict model-based approach and a component-based design, all cameras and 2D-detectors can be controlled with the same C+±API. This leads to standardized GUIs, TANGO-servers,..

Waveform monitoring system plays a special role in the control system of powerful pulse installations providing the most complete information about the installation functioning and its parameters. The report describes the family of VME modules used in the waveform monitoring system of a linear induction accelerator LIA-20. In order to organize inter-module synchronization the VME-64 bus extension implemented in the VME64-BINP crates is applied in the waveform digitizers.

A new VME-based crate and modules are presented in this work. This hardware is primarily intended for LIA-20 control system, but we also plane to use it for the upgrade of the controls of existing complexes such as: VEPP-2000, VEPP-4, VEPP-5 Preinjector. Modules were designed with an ability to be used planned projects such as Super c-tau factory. A crate is 6U VME64x compatible crate with additional synchronization, daisy-chain lines and 6U RIO-modules. Each crate has a built-in status monitoring over CAN-BUS with independent power supply. A family of VME modules is based on the same design sample and include: digitizers, timing modules, CAN-interface module, interlock module. All modules are cost effective and have TANGO device servers developed for them.

Funding:National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.11375186, No.21327901)FELiChEM is an infrared free-electron laser user facility under construction at NSRL. The design of the interlock system of FELiChEM is based on EPICS. The interlock system is made up of the hardware interlock system and the software interlock system. The hardware interlock system is constructed with PROFINET and redundancy technology. The software interlock system is designed with an independent configuration file to improve the flexibility. The test results of the prototype system are also described in this paper.

Since operation-startup more than 10 years ago, Synchrotron SOLEIL has chosen acquisition architectures that are mainly based on CompactPCI systems. The last few years there has however been an acceleration of obsolescence issues on the CPCI products and it has also been identified that this technology would become a bottleneck in terms of performance for new projects. The MACUP project was therefore created with two main objectives: maintaining the current facility operations by addressing the hardware obsolescence risks, all while searching for alternate high-performance solutions with better embedded processing capabilities to face new challenging requirements. One additional guideline for the project is to facilitate collaborative work for accelerator and beamline projects by evaluating and standardizing a limited set of technologies like the Xilinx ZYNQ SOC, VITA 57 FMC and μTCA standards. This paper describes the adopted methodologies and roadmap to drive this project.

Funding:Work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science under Cooperative Agreement DE-SC0000661.The FRIB, is a new heavy ion accelerator facility currently under construction at Michigan State University. It is being built to provide intense beams of rare isotopes. The low level controls system integrates a wide variety of hardware into an EPICS/PLC based control system. This paper will present the challenges encountered with resulting hardware interfaces, and lessons learned that can be applied to future projects. These challenges include both technical design and project management challenges that are encountered when integrating hardware from other departments.

Industrial power supplies deliver high and low voltage to a wide range of CERN's detector and accelerator components. These power supplies, sourced from external companies, are integrated into control systems via industry standard OPC servers. The servers are now being modernized. A key lesson learnt from running the previous generation of OPC servers is that vendor specific, black-box implementations can be costly in terms of support effort, particularly in diagnosing problems in large production-site deployments. This paper presents the projects producing the next generation of OPC servers; following an open, collaborative approach and a high degree of homogenization across the independent partners. The goal is to streamline development and support costs via code re-use and a template architecture. The collaborations aim to optimally combine CERN's OPC and production operations knowledge with each company's experience in integrating their hardware. This paper describes the considerations and constraints taken into account, including legal aspects, product commercialization and technical requirements to define a common collaborative approach across three hardware manufacturers.

Control system of HIRFL-CSR accelerator is now upgrading to new architecture based on Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS). Design and implement power supply subsystem, data distribution subsystem, data acquisition subsystem, etc. This paper describes the design and implementation of the control system and introduce the next work for upgrading synchronization subsystem and middle/high level applications.

DISCOS [*] is a control system developed by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and currently in use at three radio telescope facilities of Medicina, Noto and the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) [**]. DISCOS development is based on the adoption of the ALMA Common Software (ACS) framework. During the last two years, besides assisting the astronomical commissioning of the newly-built SRT and enabling its early science program, the control system has undergone some major upgrades. The long-awaited transition to a recent ACS version was performed, migrating the whole code base to 64 bit operative system and compilers, addressing the obsolescence problem that was causing a major technical debt to the project. This opportunity allowed us to perform some refactoring, in order to implement improved logging and resource management. During this transition the code management platform was migrated to a git-based versioning system and the continuous integration platform was modified to accommodate these changes. Further upgrades included the system completion at Noto and the expansion to handle new digital backends.*Orlati A. et al. Design Strategies in the Development of the Italian Single-dish Control System, ICALEPCS 2015 **Bolli P. et al. SRT: General Description, Technical Commissioning and First Light

The ISIS spallation neutron source has been a production facility for over 30 years, with a second target station commissioned in 2008. Over that time, the control system has had to incorporate several generations of computer and embedded systems, and interface with an increasingly diverse range of equipment. We discuss some of the challenges involved in maintaining and developing such a long lifetime facility.

Funding:Department of Energy contract DE-AC02-76SF00515.At the heart of the LCLS-II are two undulator lines: the hard x-ray (HXR) line and the soft x-ray line (SXR). The SXR line is comprised of 21 variable gap undulator segments separated by an interspace stands with a cam positioning system capable of positioning in 5 degrees of freedom (DOF). The undulator segment motion control utilizes the Aerotech Ensemble motion controller through an EPICS Soft IOC (input-output controller). Its drive system consists of a Harmonic Drive servo system with feedback from two absolute full-gap encoders. Additional Aerotech motion controllers are used to control the cam-positioning system and phase shifters of the interspace stand. The HXR line is comprised of 32 undulator segments each including an integrated interspace assembly. The segment girder is placed on two stands with a similar cam-positioning system as in the SXR line allowing for movement in 5 DOF. As one of the design goals of the HXR line was to reuse the original LCLS girder positioning system, the motion control system is an upgraded version of that original system, using RTEMS on VME with Animatics SmartMotors.

The ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources is driven by a 35 MeV C.W. electron linear accelerator, driving diverse secondary beams, both electromagnetic radiation and particles. Its control system is based on PLCs, fast data acquisition systems and the industrial SCADA system WinCC. In the past five years, require-ments for availability and reliability increased, while at the same time many changes of the machine configuration and instrumentation needed to be handled. Improvements of the control system infrastructure concerning power supply, IT and systems monitoring have been realized and are still under way. Along with the latest WinCC upgrade, we implemented a more redundant SCADA infrastructure and continuously improved our standards for software development.

The volume and quality of scientific data produced at the Australian Synchrotron continues to grow rapidly due to advancements in detectors, motion control and automation. This makes it critical that researchers have access to computing infrastructure that enables them to efficiently process and extract insight from their data. To facilitate this, we have developed a compute platform to enable researchers to analyse their data in real time while at the beamline as well as post-experiment by logging in remotely. This system, named ASCI, provides a convenient web-based interface to launch Linux desktops running inside Docker containers on high-performance compute hardware. Each session has the user's data mounted and is preconfigured with the software required for their experiment. This poster will present the architecture of the system and explain the design decisions in building this platform.

In 2017 the Injection Complex at Budker Institute, Novosibirsk, Russia began to operate for its consumers - colliders VEPP-4 and VEPP-2000. For successful functioning of these installations is very important to ensure a stable operation of their control systems and IT-infrastructure. The given article is about new IT-infrastructures of three accelerators: Injection Complex, VEPP-2000 and VEPP-4. IT-infrastructure for accelerators consists of servers, network equipment and system software with 10-20 years life-cycle and timely support. The reasons to create IT-infrastructure with the same principles are costs minimization and simplification of support. The following points that underlie during designing are high availability, flexibility and low cost. First is achieved through redundancy of hardware - doubling of servers, disks and network interconnections. Flexibility is caused by extensive use of virtualization that allows easy migration from one hardware to another in case of fault and gives users an ability to use custom system environment. Low cost - from equipment unification and minimizing proprietary solutions

The timing and synchronization system at the ALBA synchrotron facility is based on the well-established event-based model broadly used in the particle accelerator facilities built in the last decade. In previous systems, based on signal model architecture, the master frequency was distributed using a direct analog signal and delayed at each target where the triggers were required. However, such strategy has proven to be extremely expensive and non-scalable. In the event-based model, the data stream is generated at a continuous rate, synchronously with the master clock oscillator of the accelerator. This strategy improves the flexibility for tuning the trigger parameters remotely and reduces the costs related to maintenance tasks. On the other hand, the absence of the pure RF signal distributed in the experimental stations implies much more complexity in the performance of time-resolved experiments. Abstract here explain how these difficulties have been overcome in the ALBA timing system in order to allow the signal reconstruction of the RF master frequency at the CIRCE beamline.

At the Centre for Proton Therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute a cyclotron, two gantries and a fixed beamline are being used to treat tumours. In order to prevent non-optimal beam delivery, an interlock patient safety system (PaSS) was implemented that interrupts the treatment if any sub-system reports an error. To ensure correct treatment, the PaSS needs to be thoroughly tested as part of the regular quality assurance as well as after each change. This typically required weeks of work, extensive beam-time and may not comprehensively detect all possible failure modes. With the opportunity of the installation of a new gantry, an automated PaSS test stand was developed that can emulate the rest of the facility. It consists of a NI PXI chassis with virtually unlimited IOs synchronously stimulated or sampled at 1MHz, a set of adapters to connect each type of interfaced signal and a runtime environment. We have also developed a VHDL based formal language to describe stimuli, assertions and specific measurements. We present the use of our test stand in the verification and validation of the PaSS, showing how its full quality assurance, including report generation was reduced to minutes.

LIGHT (Linac Image Guided Hadron Technology) is a particle therapy system* developed by Advanced Oncotherapy plc. Accelerator, control and interlock systems are developed by its subsidiary A.D.A.M.SA, a CERN spin-off. The system is being designed to accelerate protons up to 230 MeV using a modular and compact 25-meter-long linear accelerator. It is being designed to operate in pulsed mode where beam properties (energy, pulse charge and spot size) can be changed at 200 Hz. A proof-of-concept accelerator is being assembled and tested at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland). Control and interlock systems are developed using an exploratory prototyping approach and COTS hardware. Requirements for the final LIGHT control and interlock systems are iteratively clarified through creation and refinement of these prototypes. We will continue to support the proof-of-concept accelerator activities while starting to design the final LIGHT control and interlock systems in parallel, building upon the knowledge acquired with the proof-of-concept accelerator. The matured final LIGHT control and interlock systems will gradually replace the prototypes to automate procedures and test the system before deployment* The LIGHT Proton Therapy System is still subject to conformity assessment by AVO's Notified Body as well as clearance by the USA-FDA

Funding:MAX IV LaboratoryThe MAX IV Laboratory is in a stage where beamlines are starting to welcome users that will collect data utilizing various scanning methods. This paper focuses on the different motion and synchronization techniques, hardware integration, software solutions, data acquisition and experiment supervision at MAX IV beamlines.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a collaboration of 17 European countries that is building a leading neutron research center in Lund, Sweden. The ESS facility will have the most powerful neutron source in the world, providing 5 MW of beam power. The Integrated Control Systems Division (ICS) is responsible for all the control systems for the whole facility. For the accelerator control system, ICS will provide different hardware platforms according to the requirements of each specific system. For high performance systems, demanding high data throughput, the hardware platform is the MicroTCA.4 standard. This work presents the software stack that makes the integration of a high-end MicroTCA.4 hardware into the ESS Control System, with the implementation details of the FPGA firmware framework, kernel and userspace drivers, EPICS device support and finally the EPICS IOC that controls the MicroTCA.4 boards.

The Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) is a major upgrade of the LCLS facility at SLAC, scheduled to start operations in 2020. The High Performance Systems (HPS) defines a set of LCLS-II controls sub-systems which are directly impacted by its 1 MHz operation. It is formed around a few key concepts: ATCA based packaging, digital and analog application boards, and 10G Ethernet based interconnections for controls. The Common Platform provides the common parts of the HPS in term of hardware, firmware, and software. The Common Platform Software (CPSW) provides a standardized interface to the common platform's FPGA for all high-level software. YAML is used to define the hardware topology and all necessary parameters. YCPSWASYN is an asynPortDriver based EPICS module for FPGA register access and asynchronous messaging using CPSW. YCPSWSYN has two operation modes: an automatic mode where PVs are automatically created for all registers and the record's fields are populated with information found in YAML; and a manual mode where the engineer can choose which register to expose via PVs and freely choose the record's filed information.

Engineers are often challenged with the need to integrate several technologies to find optimal solutions when designing new control architectures. Generally, the technical solutions chosen require the combination of various industrial products such as PXI systems for applications requiring fast acquisition, analysis and reaction times, while PLCs are commonly used for their reliability and their ability to withstand industrial environments. The needs to exchange information between these different technologies can today be solved by using industrial fieldbuses such as Profibus DP or Profinet IO. This paper describes the technical aspects of the two options, focussing on their advantages and constraints. The experience gained with integrating PXI and PLC systems as part of the 2016 consolidation project of the control of the kicker systems of the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN will be presented.

The Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS) is in the final stages of developing an open-source BPM system for Sirius, a 4th-generation synchrotron light source under construction in Brazil. The system is based on the MicroTCA.4 standard comprising AMC FPGA boards carrying FMC digitizers and a CPU module. The software is built with the HALCS framework [1] and employs a service- oriented architecture (SOA) to export a flexible interface between the gateware modules and its clients, providing a set of loosely-coupled components favoring reusability, extensibility and maintainability. In this paper, the BPM system will be discussed in detail focusing on how specific functionalities of the system are integrated and developed in the framework to provide SOA services. In particular, two domains will be covered: (i) gateware modules, such as the ADC interface, acquisition engine and digital signal processing; (ii) software services counterparts, showing how these modules can interact with each other in a uniform way, easing integration with control systems.[1] L.M. Russo, J.V. Ferreira Filho, "Gateware and Software Frameworks for Sirius BPM Electronics", PCaPAC16, paper THDAPLCO03.

The CERN UNified Industrial COntrol System framework (UNICOS) with its Continuous Control Package (UNICOS-CPC) is the CERN standard solution for the design and implementation of continuous industrial process control applications. The need of adapting the framework capabilities to the different processes at CERN has brought new challenges. Reacting as fast as possible to an interlock situation to protect equipment is a new requirement which has been introduced in UNICOS-CPC. This paper present the challenges, design and test results of the seamless integration of fast interlocks capabilities in the current UNICOS-CPC package based on conventional PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers), with a heightened level of flexibility and maturity. The first implementation is employing SIEMENS PLCs but the underlying technique is extensible to the other UNICOS-CPC compliant platforms.

B. Xaia, T. Gatsi, O.J. Mokone
SKA South Africa, National Research Foundation of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa

Funding:SKA (SA) - National Research Foundation (NRF)The 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope, under construction in South Africa, will become the largest and most sensitive radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere until integrated with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Software testing is an integral part of software development that is aimed at evaluating software quality; verifying and validating that the given requirements are met. This poster will present the approach, techniques and tools used to automate the testing of the software that controls and monitors the telescope. Jenkins continuous integration system is the server used to run the automated tests together with Git and Docker as the supporting tools to the process. In addition to the aforementioned tools we also use an Automated Qualification Framework (AQF) which is an in-house developed software that automates as much as possible of the functional testing of the Control and Monitoring (CAM) software. The AQF is invoked from Jenkins by launching a fully simulated CAM system and executing the Integrated CAM Tests against this simulated system as CAM Regression Testing. The advantages and limitations of the automated testing will be elaborated in the paper in detail.

The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) is a free electron laser (FEL) facility operating at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC). The LCLS Machine Protection System (MPS) contains thousands of inputs and hundreds of protection interlocks. The inputs and logic configuration are defined in SQLite database files. Real-time state information is hosted by EPICS signals. Control room operators use a Graphical User Interface (MPSGUI) to view and manage faults. The MPSGUI provides a wealth of useful information, from hardware input details to high-level logic flow, but it was difficult for operators to take advantage of this. The workflow required cross-referencing between several screens. This poster presents the greatly improved workflow and usability of the MPSGUI. The requested improvements were defined in meetings between the MPS controls team and the control room operators. The improved GUI allow operators to more quickly respond to MPS faults and diagnose problems reducing troubleshooting time by 20 percent.

After more than 15 years of stable operation it was time to develop a new standard experiment control and data acquisition system for HZB beamlines. The aim is to create a modular system based on commercial hardware components. Because of the convincing hardware interfacing and good experience with PXI devices we choose this as hardware platform and LabVIEW as software development system. Starting in late 2015, we developed a framework with modules for configuration, (scan) processing, device communication, logging etc. The user interface is bisected as (i) graphical and (ii) scripting version. Where the 'included' script engine is python. The system serves both, standard commissioning tools as well as specialised instrument setups. It is integrated into the metadata catalogue system (ICAT) of the HZB in terms of collecting log and meta data and storing those according to the data policy of the institute. We will present an overview of the system features in general and a specific instrument view of a rather complex beamline at HZB.

Funding:The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding by the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communication.The monochromator is known to be one of the most critical optical elements of a synchrotron beamline. It directly affects the beam quality with respect to energy and position, demanding high stability performance and fine position control. The new high-dynamic double-crystal monochromator (HD-DCM) [1], prototyped at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), was designed for the future X-ray undulator and superbend beamlines of Sirius, the new Brazilian 4th generation synchrotron [2]. At this kind of machine, the demand for stability is even higher and conflicts with factors such as high-power loads, power load variation, and vibration sources. To identify and ensure sufficient control of the dynamic behaviour of all subcomponents in the proto-type, an implementation in MATLAB/Simulink Real-Time environment in a Speedgoat Real-Time Perfor-mance Machine was developed. This approach enables rapid prototyping, by allowing a shared environment for system modeling and testing. The tool was developed in a modular architecture aiming at practical model itera-tion and platform migration to standard beamline con-trollers, which can prove portability and scalability fea-tures.[*]R. R. Geraldes et. al., 'Método de controle de grau de liberdade em sistemas mecatrÃ’nicos e monocromador de duplo cristal' [**]A. R. D. Rodrigues et al., 'Sirius Status Report'

With the increased performance provided by 4th generation synchrotron light sources, precise motion control and event synchronization are essential factors to ensure experiment resolution and performance. Many advanced beamline systems, such as a new high-dynamic double crystal monochromator (HD-DCM), are under development for Sirius, the new machine under construction in Brazil. Among the expected performance challenges in such applications, complex coordinated movements during flyscans/continuous scans, hardware synchronization for pumpÂ­-and-Â­probe experiments and active noise suppression are goals to be met. Two architectures are proposed to cover general-purpose and advanced applications. The HD-DCM controller was implemented in a MATLAB/Simulink environment, which is optimized for RCP. Hence, its software must be adapted to a more cost-effective platform. One candidate controller is the NI cRIO. The portability of both MATLAB and NI PXI, the present standard control platform at LNLS, codes to cRIO is evaluated in this paper. Control resolution, acquisition rates and other factors that might limit the performance of these advanced applications are also discussed.

ALBA requires a diagnostic system, where mainly include the temperature acquisition around the facility, such as tunnel, service area, experimental area, laboratories and auxiliary facilities. There is a big area to be covered and the location of the sensors may not be fixed, those measurement spots require a strong correlation to the machine startup configuration. This has an impact on the size whether a traditional wired installation is used, due the huge of measurement points to be covered; in addition, the restricted machine access schedule makes difficult their installation. In this paper we intend to describe one solution based on ESP8266 system-on-a-chip (SoC).

The ELI Beamlines facility is a Petawatt laser facility in the final construction and commissioning phase in Prague, Czech Republic. End 2017, a first experiment will be performed. In the end, four lasers will be used to control beamlines in six experimental halls. The central control system connects and controls more than 40 complex subsystems (lasers, beam transport, beamlines, experiments, facility systems, safety systems), with high demands on network, synchronisation, data acquisition, and data processing. It relies on a network based on more than 15.000 fibres, which is used for standard technology control (PowerLink over fibre and standard Ethernet), timing (WhiteRabbit) and dedicated high-throughput data acquisition. Technology control is implemented on standard industrial platforms (B&R) in combination with uTCA for more demanding applications. The data acquisition system is interconnected via Infiniband, with an option to integrate OmniPath. Most control hardware installations are completed, and many subsystems are already successfully in operation. An overview and status will be given.